Marauders' Shenanigans
by CelticDragonLadyWarrior
Summary: The Marauders have a challenge in place, and Remus is the current victim.


The Marauders had a tradition. Any time one of them fell asleep, one of the others would try to stack as many items as possible on the sleeping person without waking them. So far Remus had the record. James had fallen asleep after a particularly exhausting day of Quidditch practice. Remus, the only one of the quartet who was properly awake, started stacking various items on James as he slept. He started small, with some textbooks. Then he added a tea tray, a full tea set, and an assortment of school bags. He was just about to add James' broom when James woke up. Ever since, no one had been able to beat this record. Sirius came close, stacking all manner of school supplies on Peter as he slept. But no one had actually beaten the record. Today, Remus was utterly exhausted. The full moon had just past, so he was still reeling from the effects of the transformation. After completing a particularly difficult essay, he curled up on the sofa in front of the fireplace in the common room and finally allowed himself to fall asleep. James entered the common room a few moments later and looked around for his friends.

Sirius was off in the corner of the common room, flirting with the girls who had distracted him in the corridor. Peter was silently trying to study at a table near the window. But Remus was nowhere to be seen. At least, he was not immediately noticeable. James moved to sit on the sofa in front of the fire when he noticed the curled up Remus. Smirking, he figured he could use this time to beat the record and get some revenge. He started with books. He piled up his and Remus' textbooks on top of Remus, carefully balancing them very carefully. Remus made a sound and James froze. He did not want to miss out on this opportunity. Luckily, Remus remained sound asleep. With a sigh of relief, James started to grab more books. He found other books that had been left around the common room including other textbooks, some short novels, and even some brick-like novels that had been brought to the castle by some muggleborn students. He carefully arranged them by size before even attempting to balance them on Remus. He had to make sure it would actually balance and not just crash down on Remus. This was for fun after all.

He balanced each book carefully, watching Remus' face for any sort of reaction. So far this was working, but adding more books was getting boring. So James went in search of other objects he could use. He grabbed the sofa cushions off of the other sofas in the common room. Luckily no one was using any of the other sofas, so he could take them all. He stacked them carefully above the books, creating a fairly stable place to continue building. Though James was a goof and did not mind getting into trouble, he still understood how to build a solid structure. This was particularly important because he did not want to harm Remus in his attempt to break a record. After each cushion had been placed, and he had checked that Remus was still comfortably asleep, James moved on to find some other items to add to the pile. He found a broom in the corner, which he recognised as one of the Gryffindor team beater's spare brooms, and quickly added it to the pile. The books and cushions had formed a tent of sorts, leaving plenty of room for Remus to breathe, and for James to potentially add smaller items as well.

Looking around, he spotted an unused wizard chess board. He shrugged, taking it with him. He figured it would balance well on the cushions. He placed it in one corner, near Remus' feet, and used it to keep the broom in place. James managed to find some boxes of Bertie Botts lying on a table in the corner. He counted five of them, grinned like an idiot, and added them to the top of the pile, near Remus' head. He checked again on Remus, realizing he was nearing the record. Remus moved slightly, causing James to worry. When the movement stopped, and Remus made no sound, he sighed in relief. He carefully tiptoed away and grabbed a trio of goblets that were on a table nearby. He balanced them on top of the pile, carefully adjusting them so they would not fall and wake Remus. He had stacked quite a bit already, but now he was running out of ideas. All that was left in the common room was logs for the fire, Sirius, a few girls who were leaving after seeing James' antics, the furniture, and Peter in the corner. James looked around and tried to come up with a plan. If he could pull this off, he could set the record that would last for the foreseeable future!

Finally, he picked up a log from beside the fire place and added it to the pile. It looked great, considering it was a pile of mix mashed items found in the common room. James was about to leave his work to be admired by others when he paused. The work looked incomplete, but he was not sure what could possibly be missing. He glanced around the room, searching for inspiration, when his eyes fell upon Sirius. With a smirk he said "Hey Padfoot! Come over here for a second!" Sirius stepped over and said "Nice work Prongs! But why did you call me over?" James gave a mischievous grin, his plan clearly in mind and said "How about you join the pile? Climb on top of Moony so I can set the record!" Sirius smirked and quickly climbed on top of Remus. James thought that he was a bit overly willing to take part in this, but shrugged off the thought as it helped him win. And at last his work was complete. Remus was still asleep, so he would have to wait a while. Bored, he called over Peter and the duo played chess on a table nearby Remus. One hour later, Remus awoke to find Sirius on top of him and books and cushions being the only items in his range of view. He had no doubt there was more. Shaking the items off, and failing to remove Sirius, he grumbled "I'm going to kill you in your sleep Prongs!" The other Marauders just laughed as Remus gathered his books and moved to a table to return to his studies.


End file.
